Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess it's important to point out the decision on cost recovery or how it's going to happen hasn't been made, so there are opportunities -- and you are having it right now -- for some comment and some debate. But I think it's important to remember that when this was approved on June 30th, the fiscal situation that we were looking at was quite severe.
We had, not that long ago, gone through a budget session. Members will recall that the Minister of Finance in his budget address announced that we would be looking at next year's budget -- the one that will be coming up this coming January or February/March -- there would be a significant reduction. Departments were being challenged to reduce their budgets. All of us had recently been given that direction when the call letter went out for the business plan process, that we were going to have to give up money through all of our departments. So the question when the Minister of Transportation came forward and said well, if we don't do this, no one is going to be able to fly from Yellowknife to any one of the national airports in Canada as of January 2006. We have no money, how do we do it? So the issue of where we would find the money was one that was actually front and centre, and certainly I don't think Mr. Ramsay would say that we should have cut the money out of the school or some other important public project in order to pay for this, but we had no choice but to pay for the money if we wanted the public still to be able to travel.
So at that point the decision was made that it had to be done on cost recovery. If the Minister is to propose that it comes forward as an airport improvement fee, legislation would have to come before this House. Members will have a chance then if that's the way in which it's going to be handled, to discuss it and debate it at that time, if that's what the Minister proposes. But he has an opportunity now to take a look at what makes the most sense, in order to try and accomplish this through cost recovery. But Members want to provide some advice, I'm sure he would welcome what advice you have and will take that into account as he's considering what the options are for coming up with that $6.6 million. Thank you, Madam Chair.